Driving mechanism.



J. B. ENTZ.

DRIVING MECHANISM.

APPLQCATION FILED AUG.2l', m4.

1,282,786. Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J USTUS B.E1\T TZ, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOB TO EDWIN L. THUR STON, TRUSTEE, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.

DRIVING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

Application filed August 21, 1914. Serial No. 857,985.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JUs'rUs B. En'rz, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Driving Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to the. driving mechanism between a driven element, such as a dynamo electric machine and a variable speed source of power, such as an internal combustion engine, and has special utility in the driving or power transmitting mechanism for a dynamo electric machine which is provided on a motor vehicle to serve as a lighting and battery charging generator, or both as a generator and startlng motor.

In a motor vehicle having a dynamo electric machine, which is geared or connected to the engine, the driving gearing is liable to give rise to considerable noise as the speed of the engine is varied. Thi is particularly true when a chain drive is utilized, and when the rotating armature possesses considerable momentum, and it is due to the fact that when the speed of the engine is decreased, the armature tends momentarily to run ahead of the engine. with the result that the pull is first on one side of the chain and then on the other, causing the whipping and snapping of the chain.

The object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantage or difliculty above mentioned, and it contemplates the use at some point in the driving mechanism between theengine and the dynamo electric machine of two adjacent cooperating driving elements which are capable of yielding r l i ly a. l mi ed amo nt so a to r ieve the chain of the more or less sudden shocks and to dampen the surging which would otherwise take place when the speed of the drive is varied.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention employed in the chain drive for a dynamo electric machine, which serves both as a starting motor and as a lighting generator, I form one of the sprockets of two concentrio elements, one of which is provided with a slot forming a pair of spaced shoulders or abutments, and the other having a member projecting into the space between the shoulders. Additionally, there is provided means for frictionally engaging with suitable pressure one of these elements to yieldiugly resist or retard the relative movement between the elements. With this mechanism, each element is capable of positively driving the other, while at the same time the frictionally retarded relative movement may take place between the two parts of the sprocket wheel, so as to sufficiently check or dampen the shocks to provide quiet drive.

My invention may be further briefly summarized as consisting in certain novel details of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts which will be described in the specification and set forth in the appended claims.

In the accompanying sheet of drawings wherein I have shown the preferred embodiment of my invention, Figure l is an end view of a portion of the engine of a motor vehicle showing the dynamo electric machine and the driving mechanism between the two; Fig. 2 is a side view of the dynamo electric machine showing the major portion of the driving mechanism, parts being in section; Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a portion of the driving mechanism on an enlarged scale; and Fig. 4: is a transverse sectional view of the same substantially along the line H of Fig. 3.

Referring now to the drawings, 10 represents the internal combustion engine which may be supported on the vehicle in the usual manner, the vehicle itself not being shown asthe same constitutes no direct part of the invention. Adjacent the engine is the dynamo electric machine 11 which may be utilized as a starting motor, and as a lighting and battery charging generator after e engine is started. The dynamo electric machine 11 may be of any suitable construction.

Power transmitting or driving means between the engine and dynamo electric machine, in this case, includes two sets of chain and sprocket gears which constitute one complete power transmitting agency through which the dynamo electric machine may start the engine, and may thence be driven as a generator by the engine. This power transmitting agency includes a sprocket wheel 12 on the forward end of the crank shaft, a sprocket chain 13 connecting the sprocket wheel 12 to a sprocket wheel 1 1 on a shaft 15 (which in this instance is adapted to drive a magneto 16),

a second sprocket wheel 17 on the-shaft 15,

and achain 18 which connects the sprocket wheel 17 to the sprocket wheel 19 on the end of the armature shaft of the dynamo electric machine 11. While the above described driving mechanism is used by me in practice, it is not at all essential that this with an arc-shaped slot or notch 17 into which projects the end of a pin 17 which extends radially from the periphery of the inner member 17 so that the inner and outer members may have a limited range of relative movement equivalent to the length of the slot 17. The ends of this slotconstitute shoulders or abutments, which are adapted to be engaged by the pin.

Relative movement between these parts is retarded by means frictionally engaging the outer member 17, and this consists of two friction plates or disks, one disk 17 a being on one side of the sprocket and connected to the shaft 15, and the other 17 g being'located on the opposite side of the sprocket andpressed yieldingly toward the sprocket by a spring 17 which bears against an adjustable nut 17*, as well as against the disk'17 The disks 17 and 17. are provided with suitable friction material 17, which bears against the sides of the outer member 17 This device acts in substantially the following manner V I When the motor starts to turn over the engine to crank the same, the sprocket member 17 will slip between the retarding friction members until the shoulder at one end of the slot 17 engages the end of the pin 17 whereupon the engine crank shaft is positively rotated. As soon as the engine is started, it drives the dynamo electric machine as a generator whereupon the inner member 17 h which is now driven by the engine may slip until'the pin 17 comesup against the shoulder at the opposite end of the slot 17, whereupon the machine 11 is positively driven.

When the speed of theengine is decreased by closing the throttle, and in the event that the momentum of the armature of the machine 11 is sufficiently great that the machine tends momentarily to run ahead of the engine, the outersprocket wheel 17* will move forward slightly relative to the inner sprocket member 17, after which the inner sprocket member 17 again moves forwardly slightly to its normal position relative to the outer member. As the speed of the engine is increased and decreased, these two members move relatively back and forth, the degree ofmovement being sufticientto avoid Having thus described my invention, what I claim is: v

1. The combination with a variable speed source of power, of a driven member, a power transmitting means between said source of power and the driven member, including a driven element having a pair of relatively movable adjacent elements one of which is operatively connected with the said driven member, said adjacent elements frictionally engaging each other for the purpose of retarding relative movement, one of said elements having means for positively driving the other. l

2. The combination with a shaft, of a power element including a pair ofrelatively movable adjacent elements one of which is I connected to the shaft, said adjacent elements frictionally engaging each other for the purpose of retarding relative movement, one of saidelements having means for positively driving the other.

3. In combination with an internal combustion engine, a dynamo electric machine, power transmitting mechanism between the same, and including two adjacent elements, having a limited range of relative movement, and one adapted to positively drive the other, and friction means engaging one of said elements to restrict the movement thereof relatiye to the other.

1. In comb nation with an internal combustion engine, a dynamo electric machine,

power transmitting means between the same,

Wheel having two concentric members, one elements, and means by which the frictional having bearing on the other, one of said elepressure may be adjusted. 10 ments having an arc-shaped slot, and the In testimony whereof, I hereunto aflix my other having a projection extending into the signature in the presence of a Witness.

said slot, and capable of movement therein from one end of the slot to the other, friction JUSTUS ENTZ' means engaging one of said elements to re- Witness:

tard the relative movement between said A. F. KWIs.

Copies of this: patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

